We have a lot of stuff going on over the next few weeks, which is good, because counting down to our Disney trip is making time pass SO SLOWLY. I’m terrible at secrets and I’m pretty sure I’m going to accidentally tell the kids sooner than I meant to. I’m still trying to plan how and when exactly we’ll surprise them, but because we had some unexpected reactions to rides at the amusement park on Sunday (Evan hated all the roller coasters and had to be coaxed onto even small rides) I think a few days of watching Disney vacation videos and YouTube ride-throughs will be a good idea.

Sunday:

Happy Mother’s Day to me!

Family Target trip

I’m so well loved

Monday:

Re-entry into real life is hard

Real life is hard for toddlers too

A good summer sunset

Tuesday:

Front porch life

Brother friends at the library

Evening walk

Wednesday:

Can’t keep a kid out of a fountain

Downtown New London is pretty

No biggie, my sister’s wedding is just in a magazine

  Thursday:

Monster attack

Robot vacuum tried to eat the baby

Cosmic Kids Yoga is their new favorite way to end the day

Friday:

Aquarium date with some penguins

Friday night we had the aquarium all to ourselves

Eating french fries in a beer garden

Saturday:

We’re working on moving him to the crib with mixed results

Linc and I invented carrot cheesecake bars and they were delicious

We always play guys vs girls and for the FIRST TIME EVER the girls won both times

Linc has been napping for THREE HOURS and I’m almost caught up on Call the Midwife so even though I slept sitting up in a chair all night today is pretty good. Plus I have a whole fridge full of meal delivery dinners so I don’t have to stress about what I’m making tonight. Now if only the baby will let me eat something without holding him I’ll be a happy person.

I have very few complaints about this week, except for a general lack of sleeping that comes from later kid bedtimes due to late sunsets and pregnancy insomnia. I still feel like I can sleep for 18 hours straight if given the opportunity. I will probably feel like that for the next 2 years.

Sunday:

After church coffee hour has the best snacks (if you are 5)

Looking at this picture makes me want to bake another cake

Mother’s Day bubble bath

Monday:

Who care’s about hearing the baby when there are cars to look at?

Kissing Brutus goodnight before naps

My tree has a child infestation

Tuesday:

Merida wears cloth diapers

Linc loves selfies

**PRAISE HANDS**

Wednesday:

Wise choices

He refused to eat those fries because they are shaped like faces

One billion photos were taken

Thursday:

That’s a lighthouse you can almost see, because this is New England

Throwing rocks with friends is the best

He LOVED the sprinkler

Friday:

It turns out bouncing is more fun with friends

Seriously, Mom, can’t we get AIOs? I’m so tired of stuffing diapers.

Your weekly twinsie photo update. They’re getting so big!

Saturday:

Fun fact: bounce houses are really slippery when they get rained on

Hello Long Island!!

FINALLY planting time

Today’s weather feels like March, not May. It’s actually probably a good thing, since the warm, beachy weather was making it REALLY hard for me to keep doing boring stuff like sending the kids to school or enforcing healthy meal choices or going to piano lessons. I have a serious case of End Of The Year Mom and I’m not even sorry. Since it’s too cold for the beach today maybe I’ll actually get some laundry done instead. Maybe.

Holiday weekend = I don’t even know what day it is anymore. E had Friday off but is at work today, but was home for Saturday and Sunday so we were out of the house the WHOLE time. This is the first time I have even touched my laptop. I sense that might happen a lot this summer, since our default activity is “swimming at the lake” and that means way less screen time. Not a bad thing.

Sunday:

Sleep in the morning

Sleep in the afternoon

Party all night!

Monday:

If there is water around, this child will end up in it.

Downtown New London

This is her swim pose, according to her

Tuesday:

Shouting at the neighbors

I’m hoping the baby is cute enough to make up for my crow’s feet. SHEESH.

LOUNGING

Wednesday:

So pale he’s translucent

There were like 50 of these photos on my phone. I’m guessing Caroline took them.

Freeze pop time

Thursday:

Those socks are ridiculously small

IS THIS SCHOOL YEAR OVER YET?

Boys hanging out, Caroline practicing

Friday:

Princess Caroline wears high heels AND kicks your butt

Getting his summer reading started?

That’s Caroline up in my custom wrap. We ALL love it.

Saturday:

Shoe thief makes a break for the exit

New photo opp at the aquarium

They are both fans of dads wearing babies

I can’t believe I have to pack THREE more weeks of lunches for Evan. I am so, so ready to have the kids home for the summer. I realize in a month and a half I’ll be screaming “OMG WHEN DO THEY GO BACK TO SCHOOOOL??” but right now the beautiful weather + wanting to sleep in + our new lake beach club membership = ready for summer. I just need the water to get a TINY bit warmer so Linc and I can swim/float around. Right now he’s mostly eating sand, which he enjoys on the way in but does not enjoy on the way out.

I’m already 2 days late for Linc’s 10 monthday update post, but I swear I’ll do it this week. I also have two posts with actual words almost done, so this might be a record week for me – I haven’t blogged that much in years. CAN YOU HANDLE IT, INTERNETS? Of course you can. It’s not that interesting.

Even if you have a pretty good baby, they still keep your hands busy a LOT. Which makes blogging and photo editing hard. I have literally a thousand photos to share but will be lucky if I get 10% of them edited and posted in the next 6 months.

I am really, really looking forward to school starting.

Sunday:

That is Linc’s “WTF are we doing in New Jersey?” face. Just a rest stop baby, chill.

She hearts books

There was a BAT IN MY HOUSE. I WAS NOT PLEASED.

Monday:

Deep end of the big pool!

This is not an effective way to grocery shop.

More books!

Tuesday:

I bought that outfit 5 years ago, when it was already too small for Evan, thinking my next baby would wear it. I took the tags off right before I put it on Linc.

New London! Surprisingly scenic!

He’s too cool in his TooQool

Wednesday:

Aunt Carolyn brought him an elephant from Rwanda. The kids thought he needed to sleep with it NOW.

I love when baby stuff shows up in my mailbox. Especially when it’s useful baby stuff.

Up feeding the baby, all I can think is how much my closet needs to be reorganized.

Thursday:

They are singing sea shanties.

GORGEOUS day at the seaport

Aunt Carolyn read A LOT of books

Friday:

Pensive? She’s going for thoughtful.

Farmer’s market = 3 year old heaven

That was my dream car when I was a kid too.

Saturday:

He’s going through a Lego phase again

Milk drunk

I showed her Grease for the first time. It was a hit.

The weather this weekend has been GORGEOUS and I have enjoyed it…from my couch. After more than 5 weeks of house guests/traveling it is really nice to just sit down. Of course, it was really nice to have other people do all the cooking/cleaning/child minding too, but I have to get used to running the house and managing 3 kids at some point. So far they are all still alive. High fives!

We went to Long Island to visit one of my very favorite people and her two boys. For someone I met on the internet, she sure doesn’t seem like a crazy person. Unless you mean crazy-awesome. Her whole family is crazy-awesome, in fact, including an awesome boyfriend who read approximately one zillion bedtime stories to the kids.

We went to celebrate JD turning four with a super hero birthday party Kim threw together entirely on her own while also working full time. I mean, my parties ARE my full time job when I’m planning, and they still don’t go as smoothly as her’s. She’s basically Superwoman (which made the theme even more appropriate).

Party Photos:

Then on Sunday we had a super leisurely day that involved Evan taking a nap in the stroller (!!!!!!) and me buying $17 worth of pickles. And also strawberries. And also a giant bread ring stuffed with pepperoni. And that was just the farmer’s market in the morning.

I’ve gone to visit Kim on Long Island a few times now, and every time I drove through the North Fork from the ferry I thought “Man, this place is GORGEOUS. One day I’m going to come back and just drive around.” Since Kim and the boys had plans in the afternoon the kids and I left around 2, which gave us plenty of time for just driving around. Thanks to some directions from Kim’s mom and some really good luck (plus ignoring my GPS’s insistence I stay on the main road) we found plenty to occupy ourselves. A farm stand with fresh snap peas, blueberries AND a playground is basically their idea of heaven.

Twins! Even when they’re eating.

Apologies for all the blueberry pictures, they were so gorgeous.

And then we caught a 6 pm ferry home. It was a super fantastic weekend. I love summer.